


Microburst

by Sinistretoile



Series: Hallowe'en [43]
Category: Gifted - Fandom
Genre: 31 Days Of Halloween, Halloween, Mermaids, Other, Storms
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-01
Updated: 2019-10-01
Packaged: 2020-11-09 08:01:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20850140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sinistretoile/pseuds/Sinistretoile
Summary: While Mary is away in Boston at her grandmother's, Frank visits their sandbar and gets an unexpected visitor.





	Microburst

**Author's Note:**

> Day 1 of my Halloween 2019 fics! Hope you enjoy.

Frank steered the boat along the sand bar. He sighed. It just wasn’t the same without Mary. He dropped the anchor and shut off the engine. He didn’t bother to get out of the boat. He sat in the bow, letting the sun warm him. He felt colder when Mary was in Boston with her grandmother.  
A loud thump at the stern startled him. He knew he was alone. There was nothing but the empty ocean and the empty sand bar for miles. “Hello?” The boat bucked to the side and he had to grab onto the safety rail so he didn’t go into the water. The sand bar moved away from him. More correctly, he and the boat moved away from the sand bar.  
Frank ducked under the bimini, holding onto the engine housing and the beams that supported it. The engine was still off but the boat continued to move. He gripped the rail tightly, peering over the port side of the vessel. “What the fuck!” He couldn't believe his eyes. The boat lurched and rocked as the woman, no mermaid!, stopped pushing the side. She smiled up at him.  
“Frank, uncle of Mary.”  
“Who-who are you?”  
“Mary calls me Ariel though that’s not my given name.”  
“You know Mary?”  
“Oh yes.” She grinned as she lazily followed the drifting boat. “You two come here often.”  
Frank's couldn’t believe what his eyes were seeing. He rubbed his hand down his face then looked around. No other boats this insane woman could have come from.  
“You don’t believe I’m a mermaid.”  
“Eh, not totally. Mind showing me your tail?”  
She smirked and raised an eyebrow. “How forward of you, Frank, Mary’s uncle.”  
His eyes widened and his mouth dropped open. Had he just propositioned a mermaid? Was this even happening? Had he hit his head and was drowning? Did he have sunstroke? Her giggle brought him back to the present situation. “I’m sorry. I- “  
She dove under water. Her body curled in a fluid motion and her long, bluish green tale appeared out of the water, flicking him with droplets then splashing him in its wake. She disappeared under the boat. Frank leaned over the side further then thought better of it. While he’d been looking over the port side for her, she climbed over the starboard side.  
Her fin tapped his shoulder. He whipped around. “Fuck.”  
She lounged against the cushions. She held no shame in her bared breasts. He couldn’t decide where his eyes wanted to go. Her pert perfect breasts…or the gills along her sides. They flexed in the air, glistening with droplets like diamonds in the sunlight. “Mary asked me to look after you if you were to visit while she was away.” The mermaid tilted her head to the side. “Where does she go when she’s gone?”  
Frank slowly eased into the seat in front of the helm. “She’s in Boston.”  
“Where’s that?”  
“It’s up north.”  
“Oh.”  
“Yeah.”  
“When will she return?”  
“In a week. She’s on fall break from school and visiting her grandmother.”  
“What’s a grandmother?”  
“Her mother’s mother. My mother.”  
The mermaid nodded, seeming to understand. She slithered across the seating, stopping in front of him. “You take good care of my Mary.”  
“Your Mary?”  
“Yes.” She nodded. “We claimed each other as sisters.” She held out her wrist to show Frank a beaded bracelet. He'd seen Mary making the bracelets but assumed that it was for a friend at school. “Which makes you my uncle as well. Correct?”  
“Uh…”  
The mermaid threw her arms around his shoulders and hugged him. She smelled of brine and something other…something his brain told him was deep ocean and as a human he should be afraid of. She pulled back and smiled at him. He swallowed, noticing her sharp teeth. He could feel the webbing between her fingers where she gripped his shoulders.  
“I should get back to shore.”  
“Oh! Yes! That’s what I was coming for. There is a storm coming. You must get back to shore before it hits.”  
Frank squinted at the clear blue sky. “A storm?”  
She frantically nodded. “You must hurry.”  
“What about you?”  
She waved his question away. “I will be fine. But hurry, Frank, Mary’s uncle. You must hurry to shore.” Her cool hands grabbed his and put them on the boat controls. Funny that she put one hand on the key and one hand on the throttle. She knew how to work a boat. Why wouldn’t a mermaid know how to handle a boat?  
“Alright, alright.” He turned the key and the engine came to life. She smiled and dove over the starboard side. He could still feel the pads of her palms, no doubt for using her hands to climb and crawl over rocks. His heart thumped in his chest. She was a predator. And Mary had befriended her. He shook his head.  
He hazarded a glance behind him. She followed the boat far back enough to not be hit by the propeller or caught in the wake. The mass of clouds made him look upward. The wind began to pick up. Where the fuck had that storm come from? He could see the shore. The mermaid swam up alongside the boat. The wind whipped at her words.  
“Hurry! Hurry, Frank! You must go faster!” He nodded once and pushed the throttle higher. The rain started, hard and fast. But he kept just ahead of the worst of the storm. The mermaid dropped away the closer he got to the shore. He didn’t see her as he pulled into the marina. The storm bared down on the shore, drenching him and threatening to send the boat into the others moored along the docks.  
Frank fought the choppy, angry water and the stingy rain whipped by the wind. The rope slipped in his hands as he wrestled to secure the boat. He’d dropped both anchors as soon as he managed to get it into the slip. But storm threatened to get it away from him until he finally managed to secure it. Now, it was his turn for safety. Too late, his feet came out from under him on the slippery dock. His head struck a pylon as he went down.

Sunlit warmed his face. He opened his eyes to slits. Between the head injury and the brilliant Florida sun trying to get into his eyes, his head throbbed. He shivered. He was soaked to the bone.  
“Oh good, you’re awake.”  
Frank shielded his eyes. The mermaid smiled down at him. “You saved me?”  
“Oh no! I merely protected you while you were unconscious.” She simpered. “Couldn’t have you being dragged away by one of the Deep Ones or a siren. Poor Mary would be so sad.”  
“Poor Mary. Right.” Frank sat up slowly. Despite his throbbing head, his attention went to the long shimmering tail wrapped around him. He reached for it then caught himself. He glanced at her to find her watching him. Her upper lip tremored and he noticed her hands were claws sunk into the dock. “I’m sorry.”  
“You may touch.”  
“You’re sure?”  
“No human has touched me.” He could see there was more to that sentence but he didn’t push it. Instead, he laid his hand on her tail and skimmed it up, like he would have run his hand up a woman’s thigh. He felt her quiver beneath. “Enough.”  
He pulled his hand away. “Sorry.”  
“I must go, Frank. I look forward to seeing you on the sand bar.” She crawled on her hands, giving him one last look over her shoulder before she dropped into the water. He looked up at the shout of his name, a couple dock hands headed in his direction.


End file.
